Tennis-racket.



No. 761,048. PATENTED MAY 24, 1904, I

J. SAVOIE. TENNIS RAGKBT.

APPLICATION PIL E D JULY 16. 1903.

N0 MODEL.

W/ r/vssses, /N\/ENTUR.

UNITED STATES Patented May 24, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH SAVOIE, OF CENTRAL FALLS, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TO EDWARD C. GLINES, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

TENNIS-PACKET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 761,048, dated May 24, 1904. Application filed July 16, 1903. Serial No. 165,883. (No model.)

To all whmn it may concern:

Be it known that I, J OSEPH SAVOIE, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Central Falls, county of Providence, and State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tennis-Rackets, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in tennis-rackets, and the purpose of my invention is to provide a racket which will not split or separate at the point near the throat. I accomplish this purpose by the device shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a plan view of a racket; Fig. 2, the reinforcing-piece, which is the principal feature of my invention; Fig. 3, an enlarged section through the line X X of Fig. 4:; Fig. 4C, a side View of that portion of the handle and frame shown in Fig. 3, and Fig. 5 a sectional view through the line Y Y of Fig. 3.

The same parts are designated by the same letters throughout the various views.

In Fig. I, C represents the handle of the racket; B the throat-piece, A the reinforcing-piece, and 0 c the bow, 9f the racket. d

is a piece inserted in the handle below A, as

hereinafter described.

In rackets as now made the throat-piece B is inserted between the arms of the bow at the point adjacent to the handle, forming a V or wedge shaped piece, and the bow is fastened to ,the throat-piece by means of screws, usually two on each side, passing through the arms ofthe bow into the throat-piece. The throat-piece is also glued to the bow at the point mentioned; but the gluing is a very unsatisfactory method, inasmuch as the end of the grain of the throat-piece is in contact with the arms of the bow and screws are absolutely necessary to hold the arms of the bow in place. The point adjacent to the throat-piece in a tennis-racket is always the weakest part of the racket, and the introduction of screws still further weakens the frame. The curve also is the shortest and most abrupt of any part of the bow and there is an enormous strain caused by the tendency of the bow to become straight again. This strain is brought directly upon the screws in the throat-piece and as a result sometimes the screws pullout;

but most frequently the throat-piece itself splits, allowing the arms of the bow to separate, practically ruining the racket. These difficulties are overcome by my invention, which consists in introducing a reinforcingpiece A, preferably of wood, directly through both arms of the bow at the point where the throat-piece joins the arms, the reinforcingpiece A extending directly through both arms and the throat-piece B. The grain of this reinforcing-piece A when made of wood is at right angles to the grain of the throat-piece that is, the grain runs transversely across the handle.

My usual method of inserting the reinforcing-piece A consists in slotting the handle of the racket from the end thereof up to the point where the throat-piece joins the arms of the bow, as shown best in Figs. 3and 5. The top of the piece A is straight and its section forms a chord of the arc of the throat-piece Bthat is, the throat-piece is not sawed in two, but the slot terminates in a straight line across the throat-piece joining the extremities of its are. I then fill up the slot in the handle C by a piece of wood (Z of the same material as the handle itself or of some lighter wood, or the piece A may be inserted by boring a hole through the arms c c and the throat-piece and sawing out the slot for the accommodation of A. I secure the piece A in position by gluing. It will be seen that there is a broad surface of the piece A in contact with both arms of the racket and the throat-piece B, so that the glue has an ample area for adhesion. By means of the introduction of this reinforcing-piece with the grain running as described the throat of the racket becomes the strongest point of the atItlllllli c Having now described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 1s

A tennis-racket comprising in combination with the arms, the bow and the throat-piece having a curved upper edge, a reinforcingpiece passing through said arms and throatpiece and having its top forming the cord of the throat-piece arc, the grain of the reinforcing-piece extending at right angles to the grain of the throat-piece, the ends of said reinforcing-piece lying flush with the outer faces of said arms and being in contact with both of said arms and the throat-piece, said reinforcing-piece forming a broad surface of 5 contact on both of its sides whereby the glue has an ample area for adhesion between the said arms, throat-piece and reinforcing-piece.

mar

Witnesses:

FLORENCE E. BATES, E. C. GLINEs.

Signed at Pawtucket this 8th day of July, 

